Charlie spent another day in recovery by the river and amongst the veritable ocean of tired creatures. The atmosphere had turned desperate and deeply exhausting, each and every creature was fighting to their utmost limits every single day. The respite provided by the river was simply too tantalising to ignore, and was immediately overcrowded after the events of the desert calamity and the human soldiers.

Charlies dexterous and lithe body was perfect for getting through the crowded riverbank, so he wasn't overly bothered by the sheer number of tired creatures. Though, the same couldn't be said for those still hoping to break through the wall of flesh and quench their thirst, and find rest for their tired bones. The mountain of bodies that blocked the path were in no better shape, either, as many had perished in their futile attempts at breaking through - adding even more mass to the already swollen riverbanks.

Charlie considered employing the old tactic of executing the weakened creatures, but found no real safe position to take. If he were to cause a ruckus on the outer edges of the rivers peaceful territory, there might be no room to flee nor to fight. Charlie could simply be crushed by a panicked mob, so he needed to find somewhere else.

During his recovery, Charlie fiddled with the pebble in his mouth and tried to reach out with the Mana inside of his core, to finally grasp the physical pebble with the incorporeal Mana within himself. For once, it wasn't entirely fruitless. Charlie didn't succeed in lifting the pebble by the sheer will of his Mana, but instead was able to glean a little bit of understanding about why he was failing in the first place.

It was both complex in ways that Charlie was simply too ignorant to understand, but also as simple as it could possibly be.

In a sense, the world around him was real. It was physical, it could be touched and interacted with without much issue. If a rock hit him, it felt painful, it felt real. Yet, Mana was anything but physical, and in turn almost not real. When Charlie reached out with his [Mana Sense], did it hurt the creature when it made contact? From what Charlie could see, the answer was no. No creature reacted to the simple use of [Mana Sense], so it was easy to say that it wasn't real in turn.

And that, is where the complexity lay - if Mana isn't real, then why could Charlie sense it, why could he interact with it? Why could the humans use Mana to move objects, or create fire or shadows? How could Nirina, The Worm of Envy, regenerate her flesh in the blink of an eye? If Mana wasn't real, then how did continuously affect the real world?

Well, Charlie didn't have an answer to that, and he didn't need to. Instead, he was able to glean a little bit of understanding of the nature of Mana, and Magic. It's not the act of making the real and unreal interact, no, it was far simpler than that.

If the physical world could interact with the physical, then the immaterial world of Mana should be able to interact with Mana under his control. The reason it took so long to understand and the reason for finally understanding, was one and the same. The culprit was Charlies [Mana Sense].

Whilst it allowed Charlie to sense the world of Magic all around him, to see the Mana that naturally ebbed and flowed through the world, and within the creatures that surrounded him from all sides - it also blinded him with the same hand that provided the gift. If everything shined brightly, and only the brighter spots of creatures stood out, then one would simply forget that the world itself was filled with Mana.

The pebble, while small and insignificant, held Mana within its self.

With this revelation, Charlie was able to finally understand what the humans were actually doing in the first place. They weren't using their Mana to lift up the object, but instead they used their Mana to interact with the Mana held inside. The exact process and understanding of the intricacies escaped Charlie, and he was doubtful he would be able to figure it out on his own without some sort of guide, at least.

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Charlie wasn't bothered by that thought, though. He didn't need to know how to make a knife to know how to kill with it.

Whilst it wasn't exactly one to one, the core principle remained. Charlie had a new angle to attack the Magical conundrum from, and didn't think he'd need to understand the nitty gritty to be able to succeed.

Though excited to explore the full ramifications of his new revelation, Charlie needed to put it on the back burner and focus on the tumultuous task at hand - survive and thrive. Having already spent weeks in the cave, Charlie had a much better understanding of the creatures that made their homes here. Though their numbers have lessened, he still knew plenty of familiar faces.

Charlie needed to tackle these creatures with aggression, force, and take their cores for himself. Of course, charging in recklessly was suicidal, so he needed to come up with a tier list of the creatures he would work through. They couldn't be a large pack creature, nor could they be a singular powerhouse. Charlie needed to find creatures that relied on their abilities to survive and not their physical strengths, at least when possible.

There were admittedly few of such creatures left, but it didn't mean that that there were none. The first one to come to mind were the Skullkers, or Horen as the System knew them. They were certainly vicious and had a cunning mind, but physically they were weak and relied on their flight to do the heavy lifting in battle. They didn't flock together in large numbers, but instead kept a tight knit group. Though it was a completely different story when they were mating, which was what Charlie eventually realised they were doing atop the coves a few weeks ago.

It didn't even occur to him until days later, that the strange behaviour they exhibited must have been some sort of mating dance. The only reason he came to that conclusion was that the Horen were nowhere to be seen a week into his role as the rivers grim gatekeeper - all that were left were hundreds of white eggs. Some were broken and oozing a yellow viscous fluid, but most were completely intact.

Thankfully, Charlie didn't have to witness the Horen in the middle of their nasty act. The fact remained that the Horen were the first creatures to come to mind as viable targets, but not the only ones. He would need to come up with a way to deal with their group tactics, but it didn't seem impossible.

The next creature on Charlies list was thankfully a ground-based creature, probably more so than most. The Voules weren't particularly imposing in the way they looked, soft plushy bodies, elongated and pointed snouts topped with an even softer bulbous nose. Even their deviously sharp and long talons didn't strike fear into the hearts of the beasts around them, instead it was the way these creatures hunted.

They took refuge below ground and among the stone, much like the worms that Charlie had feasted upon in the tunnels filled with True Darkness. They used their claws to break apart the stone and dug beneath unaware creatures, dragging them beneath the surface - never to be seen again. Not even their dying bleats could be heard as the earth closed in around their struggling bodies.

Normally, Charlie would avoid these creatures as much as possible, but he instead found them to be the perfect candidate to hunt. They had almost no flaws in the way they hunted, and certainly none that the regular creatures in the cave could take advantage of. They were of a higher Level than most to boot, and it was clear as to why.

Unluckily for the Voules, Charlie had [Mana Sense], and was able to track their every movement beneath the stone. It was only when [Mana Sense] hit Level 2 did it even become remotely possible to track these lurking beasts, as until then it simply was too weak to penetrate the stone.

Now, though, Charlie could faintly sense their presence, and was able to confirm that they were always alone. It might be dangerous to leap into their dens under normal circumstances, but with the element of surprise on his side, Charlie felt that his chances were quite high to come out of it as a victor.

It was out of Charlies control that he would need to take these risky endeavours if he wanted to progress, but it was up to him to increase his chances of success, and survival.

Though, the final creature might be the simplest one of all, and likely the prime choice. The nearly invisible Lizards that could be felt clinging to the walls, almost as if they were unbothered by the chaos that infected the rest of the creatures. Whilst he couldn't see them, he could still feel their presence, no matter how well they fooled his poor eyes.

[Mana Sense] was truly a gift that kept on giving.